This book, published in 1990 by Amphoto, is probably not on the radar of most young photographers. It was written in a time before digital, when people at the top of the profession still used 4×5 slide film (or larger), with its demanding need for exact exposures. The copy I’m reviewing is on loan from the Charleston County Library, and I suspect you’ll have to dig some to find a copy.
However, if you’re interested in reading the details of how a professional did shoots for high-end clients, including magazines like Connoisseur and museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, you’ll find this fascinating. Full page color photos show the end result of each shoot, and are accompanied by the details of how Mr. Joel worked with the clients to identify the goals for each image, how the lighting was set up, and how he would bracket exposures to insure that at least one large format transparency contained the “best” image for the client.
These days, thankfully, we’re able to achieve professional results with digital, but it’s still worth seeing the process that was used to produce high quality images, since that discipline yields benefits even in the current digital world. It’s still about coming up with the proper lighting to give the image that the client wants, especially when it’s an image of a priceless Egyptian artifact from a museum collection!
Recommended for those interested in how the previous generation worked, and current still life and product photographers looking to broaden their knowledge and pick up new lighting ideas.